Saudi Americans are Americans of total or partial Saudi descent. According to the census of 2000, 7,419 people of Saudi origin were living in the United States. In 2015, according to the American Community Survey, 96,783 Saudi-born people were living in United States.[2]Saudi Arabia and the United States have had important political relations since the 1940s. Population estimates are seen to have a very small diaspora, mainly because Saudi Arabia provides them with more than adequate welfare benefits, removing the need to live and work in other developed countries.

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Citizens of Middle Eastern countries have been immigrating to the United States since the late nineteenth century. However, the Muslims of Middle East did not begin to immigrate in great numbers until after World War II. The first Saudis who settled in the United States were personal ambassadors of the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1940s. The US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which established preferential treatment for educated immigrants, encouraged a limited number of Saudis to seek US citizenship. Those Saudi Arabians who did settle permanently in the United States were commonly well educated and lived near cities where they held professional jobs.

Due to the number of Saudi families in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, there were enough children of primary and secondary school age to establish in 1984 the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Virginia (to other Muslim children are also permitted to attend). The government of Saudi Arabia funded the academy to provide an academic, religious and Arabic curriculum. It services 1,150 children in kindergarten through the 12th grade and sits on 100 acres (0.40 km2).

In the 1990 census, only 4,486 US citizens reported that they were of Saudi Arabian descent. Despite of this, in 1999, the Information Department of the embassy did not know the exact number Saudi citizens who had lived in the United States for long periods before the end of the Second World War.[3]

Following the World War II, young Saudi men began coming to the United States to obtain higher educations. Saudi Arabia's oil wealth allowed the government sponsor these students financially. As of 1999, they were provided with tuition money, funds for room and board, clothing, medical care, one plane ticket round trip to visit Saudi Arabia each year, and other benefits. Bonuses were given to those people studying in scientific or technical fields.[3]

Saudi men were encouraged through economic incentives to marry, and to take their families with them, and therefore reduce feelings of isolation and culture shock in the USA. One incentive included tuition money as well for the man's spouse that come to study. Unmarried Saudi women were required to have a chaperone to travel outside of Saudi Arabia as of 1999, although a woman's family could choose not to have her chaperoned. According to editor Richard Nyrop, in his book Saudi Arabia: A Country Study, "[t]he vast majority [of Saudi students] remained deeply committed to the Saudi values that surrounding religion as well as family and social life. The one area where there were measurable changes of opinion was in the attitudes toward women and women's role in society."

When universities in Saudi Arabia began opening in the 1960s, the number of Saudi students abroad decreased. This pleased conservative groups, who were concerned about sending so many young people out of the country, particularly to non-Muslim nations of which more than half were women. In 1991-92, this figure dropped to 5,000, with half students at universities in the United States. In 1999, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, DC estimated that 5,000 Saudis were studying in the United States, and that the majority were male.

The close political and economic relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States led to a number of generous educational grants on behalf of the Saudi government. In April 1976, Saudi Arabia presented in the University of Southern California an endowment in the amount of one million dollars to establish the King Faisal Chair of Islamic and Arab Studies.

In 1999, there were 25 Saudi Student Houses for support the embassy and the Saudi Cultural Mission across the United States. In October 1997, the Saudi Student House at Indiana State University held a "Saudi National Day", which featured traditional food, dancing, a fashion show, displays, slides and videos. At Michigan State University, a Saudi Student House was established in April 1996 to provide Islamic, educational, social, and athletic services; in 1999 it reported 70 members. Saudi students also congregated at mosques and Islamic centers, many of which received support from the embassy.

Academically, Saudi students were diverse, research dissertation of a wide variety of topics at the masters and doctoral levels. In the late 1970s, a majority were studying the social sciences, and later the community of Saudi students constitute a substantial body work about their experiences. Examples of researched topics include Abdullah Ahmed Oweidat's Ph.D. dissertation entitled "A Study of Changes in Value Orientation of Arab Students in the United States" (University of Southern California, 1981). He Saudi studied and other Arab students and found that those who had resided in the United States for at least three years demonstrated values similar to those held by Americans, which were significantly different from Arab students who had recently arrived to the United States. Another Ph.D. dissertation, by Abdullah Muhammad Alfauzan, researched how Saudi Arabian students in the United States viewed women's participation in the work force in Saudi Arabia. He found that Saudi students in the United States possessed more liberal viewpoints than their counterparts in Saudi Arabia.[3]

Under Saudi law, Saudi citizens may not practice any other religion than Islam. Individual Saudi citizens, as well as their government, have made financial contributions to Muslim organizations. Nevertheless, the relatively small Saudi community, and the low number of Saudis who choose to live permanently in the United States, has limited uniquely the cultural developments of Saudi-Americans.

There are a variety of reasons why so few Saudi Arabians chose to permanently live to the United States. Among these were the wealth of Saudi Arabia, the religious faith and pride of Saudis who found it difficult to maintain an Islamic lifestyle in the United States, and a lack of factors motivating citizens to leave Saudi Arabia. The limited number of marriages between US and Saudi citizens may also have contributed to the low number of Saudi immigrants and of Saudi Americans.

Political dissent and dissatisfaction with the restrictions of living in an orthodox Muslim society were among the factors that encouraged migration. The US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, that gave special treatment to those educated immigrants established in the United States, also helped Saudi immigrants adopt American citizenship.

Arabic is the national language of Saudi Arabia, but English is commonly used in business transactions, particularly with foreigners. There were ten large newspapers operating in Saudi Arabia in 1992, all privately owned; seven were printed in Arabic and three in English. English is commonly taught in the public schools, and sometimes French is offered in private academies. The Saudi men living in the United States and who do not wish to return to Saudi Arabia to marry do have other options when seeking a spouse. In the 1990s, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), headquartered in Plainfield, Indiana, maintained an electronic database of persons seeking to marry. Through it, Muslims living in the United States and Canada were able to locate potential spouses with whom they could share Islamic values. The restrictions for Saudi women desiring to marry non-Saudis are severe. As of 1999, they were required get a kingly dispensation to marry anyone that was not from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, or the United Arab Emirates. In 1999, the American Embassy was aware of that only four Saudi women be married with American men. For these reasons, Saudi men and women living in the United States are unlikely to marry with Americans, thereby eliminating one aspect of Americanization: The cross-cultural marriages that have played key roles in helping to establish other ethnic communities in United States.[3]

In the United States, Saudi women prepare traditional dishes and learn to work with American foods. In 1999, Aldeerah Restaurant at 262 Cedar Lane opened in Virginia. Also in 2015 Marib Saudi opened in Springfield. Also, Fair Price International Supermarket sells Saudi cuisine

Saudi music, secular or religious, was not being produced in the United States as of 1999, however, it has become more accessible through various music providers such as Amazon.com on the World Wide Web. Individual import companies also advertise their ability to provide Saudi music in the United States. Increasing interest in Arabic music led to the publication of several books on the topic, including the translation of Habib Hassan Touma's "The Music of the Arabs".[3]

In the United States, most male Saudi students adopt Western standards of dress, including fashionable brands name as well as jeans, T-shirts and the like. Many Saudi women do not wear the abaya while in the United States; some women do not always wear a head covering, although most do. A family's religious piety influences how a woman will dress after arriving in the United States. In conservative settings such as the mosque, or for celebrations, both men and women are more likely to wear traditional clothing.[3]

The United States has had a long-term relationship with Saudi Arabia in the areas of medical research and care. In the 1960s through to the 1980s, Saudi Arabia developed and instituted expansive medical coverage for its citizens, built hospitals, and trained physicians. The United States assisted in this process, and as a result, some Saudi doctors were trained in the United States. In 1999, Saudi Arabia presented George Mason University in northern Virginia with a 1.1 million dollar grant to train 12 Saudi nurses for 15 months. Moreover, Saudi Arabia continues, as of 1999, to host and recruit doctors from around the world.[3]

The authority of the ruling family was challenged several times in the latter half of the twentieth century. One of the more dramatic incidents occurred in 1979 with the capture by religious fundamentalists of the al-Haram, or "Grand Mosque", in Mecca. More than 200 people lost their lives during the two-week stand-off. Also in 1979, the newly installed Iranian government called for the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy, claiming that they no longer ruled with Islamic authority. During the Iran–Iraq War, which raged from 1980–1988, the Saudi government supported Iraq financially for fear of Iranian domination in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia's close political ties with the United States, born of the economic relationship created by oil, led to their support of Operation Desert Shield in 1990-1991. Although disturbed by the presence of non-Muslim and female soldiers on Arab land, the Saudis accepted over 700,000 troops from 37 nations to forge the attack against Iraq. The Gulf War (1991) led to domestic unrest in Saudi Arabia, when reform-minded citizens and human rights organizations sought to modernize the rigorous methods and policies of the Saudi government.

While Saudi Arabia and the United States are linked because of a mutually beneficial relationship over oil, the two countries do not always agree on issues. Significantly, Saudi Arabia and the United States have differed in foreign policy stances regarding Israel and the Middle East. Ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia led to their joint efforts during the Gulf War. Though, differences in foreign policy, specifically as they relate to Israel and the Middle East, have limited military cooperation. This did not prevent the enrollment of ten Saudi cadets at the State University of New York's Maritime College at Fort Schuyler in 1999.[4]

1.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565

2.
Washington, DC
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing

3.
Arabic language
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested

4.
Najdi Arabic
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Najdi Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Najd region of Saudi Arabia. There are four major dialects of Najdi Arabic, northern Najdi, spoken in Hail Region and Al-Qassim Region in the Najd. Central Najdi, spoken in the city of Riyadh and surrounding towns, southern Najdi, spoken in the city of Al-Kharj and surrounding towns, and in the Rub al-Khali. Here is a table of the consonant sounds of Najdi Arabic, phonetic notes, The classicized is an allophone for /g/ ⟨ق⟩ in few words and proper names as in القرآن and قانون. The phonemes /ɣ/ ⟨غ⟩ and /x/ ⟨خ⟩ can be realised as uvular fricatives, in the consonantal system of Najdi Arabic, there is an occurrence of the alveolar affricates and as allophonic variants of the velar stops /k/ and /g/, respectively. The Syntax of Najdi Arabic, University of Texas PhD dissertation, an Optimality-Theoretic Analysis of Syllable Structure in Qassimi Arabic

5.
Hijazi Arabic
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Hejazi Arabic or Hijazi Arabic, also known as West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. Strictly speaking, there are two groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population who consist the majority. However, the term most often applies to the variety, spoken in the major cities such as Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, Taif. Urban Hejazi Arabic belongs to the western Peninsular Arabic branch of the Arabic language and it includes features of both urban and bedouin dialects giving its history between the ancient urban cities of Medina and Mecca and the bedouin tribes that lived on the outskirts of these cities. With respect to the axis of bedouin versus sedentary dialects of the Arabic language and these include the internal passive form (which in Hejazi, is replaced by the pattern, the marker for indefiniteness, gender-number disagreement, and the feminine marker -n. The present progressive tense is marked by the prefix بـ /bi/ or قاعد /gaːʕid/ as in بيدرس /bijidrus/ or قاعد يدرس /gaːʕid jidrus/, in contrast to bedouin dialects, the distinction between the emphatic sounds /dˤ/ ض and /zˤ/ ظ is generally preserved in a number of words. The final -n in present tense plural verb forms is no longer employed, the dominant case ending before the 3rd person masculine singular pronoun is -u, rather than the -a that is prevalent in bedouin dialects. For example, بيته /beːtu/, عنده /ʕindu/, أعرفه /aʕrifu/, the prohibitive mood of Classical Arabic is preserved in the imperative, لا تروح /laː tiruːħ/. The possessive suffixes are generally preserved in their Classical forms, for example, بيتكم /beːtakum/ your house. The plural first person pronoun is نحنا /niħna/ or إحنا /iħna/, when used to indicate location, the preposition في /fi/ is preferred to بـ /b/. In bedouin dialects, the preference differs by region, less restriction on the distribution of /i/ and /u/. The glottal stop can be added to final syllables ending in a vowel as a way of emphasising, compared to neighboring dialects, urban Hejazi retains more of the short vowels of Modern Standard Arabic, for example, سمكة /samaka/, as opposed to bedouin /smika/. ضربَته /dˤarabatu/, as opposed to bedouin /ðˤrabətah/, أكتب /aktub/, Imperative mood, as opposed to bedouin /iktib/. عندَكُم /ʕindakum/, as opposed to bedouin /ʕandkum/, Egyptian /ʕanduku/, consonant length and Vowel length are both distinctive in Hejazi. Phonetic notes, the classicized is an allophone of /ɡ/ ⟨ق⟩ in few words and proper names as in القرآن /algurˈʔaːn/→, the marginal phoneme /ɫ/ only occurs in the word الله /aɫːaːh/ and words derived from it, it contrasts with /l/ in والله /waɫːa/ vs. ولَّا /walːa/. The classicized is an allophone for ⟨ظ⟩, but it is always used when pronouncing the letters name which is. In general, urban Hejazi speakers pronounce it as /zˤ/ or merge it with /dˤ/ depending on the word, phonetic notes, /oː/ and /eː/ are pronounced as true mid vowels and respectively. /u/ is pronounced allophonically as or in initial or medial syllables

6.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion

7.
Arab Americans
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Arab Americans are Americans of Arab ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage or identity, who identify themselves as Arab. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World. According to the 2010 U. S. Census, there are 1,697,570 Arab Americans in the United States,290,893 persons defined themselves as simply Arab, and a further 224,241 as Other Arab. Other groups on the 2010 Census are listed by nation of origin, instead, the ties that bind are a shared heritage by virtue of common linguistic, cultural, and political traditions. The majority of Arab Americans, around 62%, originate from the region of the Levant, the remainder are made up of those from Egypt, Somalia, Morocco, Iraq, Libya, the GCC and other Arab nations. There are nearly 3.5 million Arab Americans in the United States according to The Arab American Institute, Arab-Americans live in all 50 states and in Washington, D. C. and 94% reside in the metropolitan areas of major cities. According to the 2010 U. S. Census, the city with the largest percentage of Arab Americans is Dearborn, Michigan, five other states - Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania - report Arab-American populations of more than 40,000 each. Also, the counties which contained the greatest proportions of Arab-Americans were in California, Michigan, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Bayonne, New Jersey, a city of 63,000, while the majority of the population of the Arab World is composed of people of the Muslim faith, most Arab Americans, in contrast, are Christian. This stands in contrast to the first wave of Arab immigration to the United States between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when almost all immigrants were Christians, most Maronites tend to be of Lebanese or Syrian extraction, those Christians of Palestinian background are often Eastern Orthodox. Arab Christians, especially from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, continue to immigrate into the U. S. in the 2000s, there are many immigrants to America from Arabic-speaking countries who are not classified as Arabs. Among these are Armenian Americans, Kurdish Americans, Coptic Americans and it is very difficult to estimate the size of these communities. For example, some Kurds immigrated from Iraq, but also from Turkey, estimates place these communities at least in the tens of thousands. Other smaller communities include Assyrians, Berbers, Turkmen, Mandeans, Circassians, Shabaki, Turks, Mhallami, Georgians, Yazidis, Balochs, Iranians, Azerbaijans and Kawliya/Roma. Most of these groups speak their own native languages and have their own customs. Also, the distinction between Arab and non-Arab identity is always blurred. The United States Census Bureau is presently finalizing the ethnic classification of MENA populations and this process does not pertain to Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and other religious adherents, whom the bureau tabulates as followers of a religion rather than members of an ethnic group. The Paterson, New Jersey-based Arab American Civic Association runs an Arabic language program in the Paterson school district

8.
Israeli Americans
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Israeli Americans are Americans who have Israeli citizenship either by descent, naturalization, or birth in Israel. Israelis began migrating to the United States shortly after the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. A second wave of modest immigration continued with a total of 36,306 Israelis during 1970 to 1979,43,669 in 1980 to 1989,41,340 in 1990 to 1999 and 54,801 in 2000 to 2009. Since 2010 Israeli migration to the U. S. and has continued at around four thousand a year since, also, the acquisition of aspects of American culture in Israel caused many Israelis to want to have the economic and educational opportunities of the United States. Since the declaration of the state of Israel, and until today many Israelis emigrated to the United States. The 2000 United States Census estimated that as many as 106,839 Israelis live in the United States nowadays, while other unsourced estimates say the number is much higher, around 500,000. A considerable numbers of Israelis, estimated broadly from 200,000 to three times that figure, have moved abroad in the recent decades, reasons for emigration vary, but generally relate to a combination of economic and political concerns. The New York City metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, in 2009, Steven M. Cohen and Judith Veinstein found that in New York, Jewish Israeli emigrants are highly affiliated with the Jewish community even though community affiliation is low in Israel. Based on the 2013 Pew American Jewry Survey estimate base on Jews by religion/no religion/Jewish background who were born in Israel/Palestine is 140,0000 nationally, American Jews born in Israel had 40 thousand children under age 18 in their US households. An An additional 60 thousand American Jews reported that they had lived in Israel. The U. S states by Israeli Americans as per the 2000 census, Various Israeli-American communities have their own newspapers which are printed in Hebrew. Hundreds of thousands of spectators view the annual Celebrate Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a variety of Hebrew language websites, newspapers and magazines are published in South Florida, New York, Los Angeles and other U. S. regions. The Israeli Channel along with two other Hebrew-language channels are available via satellite broadcast nationally in the United States, Hebrew language Israeli programming on local television was broadcast in New York and Los Angeles during the 1990s, prior to Hebrew language satellite broadcast. Live performances by Israeli artists are a regular occurrence in centers of Israeli emigrants in the U. S. an Israeli Independence Day Festival has taken place yearly in Los Angeles since 1990 with thousands of Israeli emigrants and American Jews. In Los Angeles, a Council of Israeli Community was founded in 2001. S, president, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain greeted the attendees by video and expressed their support for the residents of Sderot. An Israeli Business Network of Beverly Hills has existed since 1996, according to CNN, Israeli companies are establishing entrepreneurial ventures in New York City at the rate of ten new startups per month. In return, Jewish Americans, especially religious Jewish Americans, tend to maintain contact with the Israeli American community besides participation in religious ceremonies. 75% of Israeli Americans marry within the Jewish community, comedian-writer Robert Smigel came up with a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990 called the Sabra Shopping Network

9.
American Jews
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American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are Americans who are Jews, either by religion, ethnicity, or nationality. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews and their US-born descendants, Minority Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and a smaller percentage of converts to Judaism. The American Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions, depending on religious definitions and varying population data, the United States is home to the largest or second largest Jewish community in the world. In 2012, the American Jewish population was estimated at between 5.5 and 8 million, depending on the definition of the term and this constitutes between 1. 7% and 2. 6% of the total U. S. population. Jews have been present in what is today the United States of America since the mid-17th century, however, they were small in number, with at most 200 to 300 having arrived by 1700. The majority were Sephardic Jewish immigrants of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry, until after 1720 when Ashkenazi Jews from Central, after passage of the Plantation Act of 1740, Jews were specifically permitted to become British citizens and immigrate to the colonies. Until about 1830, Charleston, South Carolina had more Jews than anywhere else in North America and they primarily became merchants and shop-owners. Jewish migration to the United States increased dramatically in the early 1880s, as a result of persecution, many Jews also emigrated from Romania. Over 2,000,000 Jews landed between the late 19th century and 1924, when the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted immigration, most settled in the New York metropolitan area, establishing the worlds major concentrations of Jewish population. In 1915 the circulation of the daily Yiddish newspapers was half a million in New York City alone, in addition thousands more subscribed to the numerous weekly papers and the many magazines. American Jewish writers of the time urged assimilation and integration into the wider American culture,500,000 American Jews fought in World War II, and after the war younger families joined the new trend of suburbanization. There, Jews became increasingly assimilated and demonstrated rising intermarriage, more recent waves of Jewish emigration from Russia and other regions have largely joined the mainstream American Jewish community. Americans of Jewish descent have been successful in many fields. Scholars debate whether the historical experience for Jews in the United States has been such a unique experience as to validate American exceptionalism. Korelitz shows how American Jews during the late 19th and early 20th centuries abandoned a racial definition of Jewishness in favor of one that embraced ethnicity. The key to understanding this transition from a racial self-definition to a cultural or ethnic one can be found in the ‘’Menorah Journal’’ between 1915 and 1925, siporin uses the family folklore of ethnic Jews to their collective history and its transformation into an historical art form. They tell us how Jews have survived being uprooted and transformed, many immigrant narratives bear a theme of the arbitrary nature of fate and the reduced state of immigrants in a new culture. By contrast, ethnic family narratives tend to show the more in charge of his life

10.
Assyrian Americans
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Assyrian Americans refers to people born in or residing in the United States of full or partial Assyrian origin. The 2000 U. S. census counted 82,355 Assyrians in the country, however, Assyrian-American organizations claim that their population in 2010 is around 400,000. The largest Assyrian-Chaldean diaspora is located in Metropolitan Detroit, with a figure of 100,000 as of 2007, high concentrations are also located in Chicago, Phoenix, Modesto, San Diego, Los Angeles and Turlock, among others. The first large wave of Assyrian immigration to the United States due to the Assyrian Genocide, the United States is home to the third largest Assyrian community in the world. Assyrians have been present in the United States since the late 19th century, the first recorded Assyrian in America was Zia Attala. He reportedly immigrated to Philadelphia in 1889 and found work in the hotel industry, most early Assyrian immigrants, however, were young men sent by Western missionaries for religious training. The second large wave of Immigration occurred in the 1960s and 70s, made up mostly of ethnic Assyrians from northern Iraq coming due to conflicts, many Assyrians also arrived during this period to take advantage of the situation in Detroit, which was suffering from white flight. In 2005, the first Assyrian school in the United States, Assyrian immigration to the cities in Michigan began in the early 20th century. More and more Assyrians-Chaldeans, as they establish themselves financially, quickly move out of Detroit and into the locations, including San Diego. Before the 1970s, Assyrians came to the United States in search of economic opportunities. After the 1970s, many Assyrians fled for freedom, especially after the rise of Saddam Hussein and. Some were drawn by the opportunities they had seen successfully affect their family members who had already immigrated. Less stringent immigration laws during the 1960s and 1970s facilitated increasing numbers, in 1962, the number of Assyrian owned grocery stores was 120, but grew to 278 in 1972. The main cause of this were the 1967 Detroit riots, after which Jewish grocery store owners left the area, often these Jews sold their old stores to Assyrians. Mostly all new Chaldean Catholic immigrants and low-income senior citizens tend to reside in Detroit and this area was officially named Chaldean Town in 1999. There are eight Chaldean Catholic churches in Metropolitan Detroit, located in West Bloomfield, Troy, Oak Park, Southfield, Warren, Sterling Heights, after World War II several Assyrian men who had been educated in Iraq by American Jesuits traveled to the United States. They were to teach Arabic to U. S. officers at the Army Language School who were going to be stationed in the Middle East, the men started the San Diego-area Chaldean Catholic community. According to the 2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates there are 110,807 Assyrian people in the United States, there are 26,378 living in Michigan according to the 2000 United States Census

11.
Americans
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Americans are citizens of the United States of America. The country is home to people of different national origins. As a result, Americans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, although citizens make up the majority of Americans, non-citizen residents, dual citizens, and expatriates may also claim an American identity. See Names for United States citizens. S, virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands in the 20th century. It also includes influences of African-American culture, westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced a variety of elements, immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics, in addition to the United States, Americans and people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as seven million Americans are estimated to be living abroad, the United States of America is a diverse country, racially, and ethnically. Some other race is also an option in the census and other surveys, people of European descent, or White Americans, constitute the majority of the 308 million people living in the United States, with 72. 4% of the population in the 2010 United States Census. They are considered people who trace their ancestry to the peoples of Europe, the Middle East. Of those reporting to be White American,7,487,133 reported to be Multiracial, with largest combination being white, additionally, there are 29,184,290 White Hispanics or Latinos. Non-Hispanic Whites are the majority in 46 states, there are four minority-majority states, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii. In addition, the District of Columbia has a non-white majority, the state with the highest percentage of non-Hispanic White Americans is Maine. The largest continental ancestral group of Americans are that of Europeans who have origins in any of the peoples of Europe. This includes people via African, North American, Caribbean, Central American or South American and Oceanian nations that have a large European diaspora, the Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States. Martín de Argüelles born 1566, San Agustín, La Florida, was the first person of European descent born in what is now the United States. Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare born 1587 Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents. 8% of the total population, Hispanic or Latino Americans constitute the largest ethnic minority in the United States. They form the second largest group after non-Hispanic Whites in the United States, hispanic/Latino Americans are very racially diverse, and as a result form an ethnic category, rather than a race

12.
Saudi
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago

13.
American Community Survey
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The American Community Survey is an ongoing statistical survey by the U. S. Census Bureau. These data are used by many public-sector, private-sector, and not-for-profit stakeholders to allocate funding, track shifting demographics, plan for emergencies, sent to approximately 295,000 addresses monthly, it is the largest survey after the decennial census that the Census Bureau administers. From the 1940 census through the 2000 census, a subset of all Americans received a form containing additional questions. Many Americans found filling out the form to be burdensome and intrusive. In 1994, the Bureau began the process of changing the means of obtaining the demographic, housing, social, testing began in 1995, and the ACS program began producing test data in 2000,2001, and 2002. The survey was implemented in 2005. The following year, the Census Bureau released estimates for all areas with populations of 65,000 or more using the data collected from January to December 2005. In 2010, the ACS produced its first set of estimates for areas of all population sizes, the American Community Survey cites 13 U. S. C. §141 and 13 U. S. C. §193 as the authority to request survey responses. In 2002, the GAO concluded that the Bureau has authority to conduct the survey, the ACS has an initial sample of approximately 3. Data are collected primarily by mail, with follow-ups by telephone, because approximately two-thirds of mail/telephone nonrespondents are not selected for in-person follow-up interviews, the ACS only includes approximately 2 million final interviews per year. In 2012, completed ACS interviews represented 67.1 percent of the housing units initially selected for inclusion in the sample, like the decennial census, ACS responses are confidential. Every employee at the Census Bureau takes an oath of nondisclosure and is sworn for life to not disclose identifying information, violations can result in a 5-year prison sentence and/or $250,000 fine. §9, census responses are immune from legal process and may not be admitted as evidence or used for any purpose in any action, suit, the Census Bureau aggregates individual ACS responses into estimates at many geographic summary levels. Estimates for census blocks are not available from ACS, for example, the 2013 ACS 1-year estimates were released in 2014 and summarize responses received in 2013 for all states but only the 26% of counties with 65,000 people or more. This is most suitable for users interested in shorter-term changes at medium to large geographic scales. 3-year estimates were available for areas with 20,000 people or more. For example, the 2013 ACS 3-year estimates were released in 2014 and summarize responses received in 2011,2012 and this data product was discontinued in 2015 due to budget cuts, meaning the last 3-year release is the 2011-2013 estimates. 5-year estimates are available for all areas down to the block group scale, for example, the 2013 ACS 5-year estimates were released in 2014 and summarize responses received in 2009,2010,2011,2012, and 2013 for all geographies

14.
Saudi Arabia
–
Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago

15.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

16.
Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco

17.
Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians and other Arameans, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, in the Middle East, there is also a Romani community. European ethnic groups form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Bengalis as well as other Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Most of the countries border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil. The term Middle East may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office, however, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to designate the area between Arabia and India. During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf. Mahan first used the term in his article The Persian Gulf and International Relations, published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar, it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, mahans article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled The Middle Eastern Question, written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India. After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term, in the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term Middle East gained broader usage in Europe, the description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkestan. The first official use of the term Middle East by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, the Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous

18.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

19.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing

20.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
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Representative Emanuel Celler of New York proposed the bill, Senator Philip Hart of Michigan co-sponsored it, and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts helped to promote it. The Hart–Celler Act abolished the system based on national origins that had been American immigration policy since the 1920s. The new law maintained the per-country limits, but also created preference visa categories that focused on immigrants skills, the bill set numerical restrictions on visas at 170,000 per year, with a per-country-of-origin quota. However, immediate relatives of U. S. citizens and special immigrants had no restrictions, the Hart–Celler Act of 1965 marked a radical break from the immigration policies of the past. Previous laws restricted immigration from Asia and Africa, and gave preference to northern and western Europeans over southern and eastern Europeans, in the United States, the national-based formula had been under scrutiny for a number of years. In 1952, President Truman had directed the Commission on Immigration and Naturalization to conduct an investigation, the report, Whom We Shall Welcome, served as the blueprint for the Hart–Celler Act. After Kennedys assassination, President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, the bill still prohibited the entry into the country of sexual deviants, including homosexuals. By doing so it crystallized the policy of the INS to reject homosexual prospective immigrants on the grounds that they were mentally defective, the Immigration Act of 1990 rescinded the provision discriminating against gay people. The Hart–Celler Act amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and it maintained per-country limits, which had been a feature of U. S. immigration policy since the 1920s, and it developed preference categories. One of the main components aimed to abolish the national-origins quota and this meant that it eliminated national origin, race, and ancestry as basis for immigration. It created a seven-category preference system, which gave priority to relatives of U. S. citizens and legal permanent residents and to professionals, immediate relatives and special immigrants were not subject to numerical restrictions. Some of the special immigrants include ministers, former employees of the U. S. government, foreign medical graduates, for the first time, immigration from the Western Hemisphere was limited. It added a labor requirement, which dictated that the Secretary of Labor needed to certify labor shortages. Refugees were given the seventh and last category preference with the possibility of adjusting their status, however, refugees could enter the United States through other means as well like those seeking temporary asylum. As per the rules under the Immigration and Nationality Act, U. S. organizations are permitted to employ foreign workers either temporarily or permanently to fulfill certain types of job requirement. Workers willing to perform in a job in return of wages that either meet or exceed the present wage paid by the employers for the occupation in the intended area of employment. However, some rules are applied to each category of visas. H-2A Agricultural Workers should have the highest pay in accordance to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, the law also stipulates requirements like employer-sponsored meals and transportation of the employees as well as restrictions on deducting from the workers wages

21.
Alexandria, Virginia
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Alexandria is an independent city in the United States Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 139,966, and in 2015, located along the western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately 7 miles south of downtown Washington, D. C. Like the rest of Northern Virginia, as well as Central Maryland, one of Alexandrias largest employers is the U. S. Department of Defense. Another is the Institute for Defense Analyses, in 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office moved to Alexandria. The historic center of Alexandria is known as Old Town, with its concentration of boutiques, restaurants, antique shops and theaters, it is a major draw for all who live in Alexandria as well for visitors. Like Old Town, many Alexandria neighborhoods are compact and walkable and it is the 7th largest and highest-income independent city in Virginia. In 1920, Virginias General Assembly voted to incorporate what had been Alexandria County as Arlington County to minimize confusion, on October 21,1669 a patent granted 6,000 acres to Robert Howsing for transporting 120 people to the Colony of Virginia. That tract would become the City of Alexandria. Virginias comprehensive Tobacco Inspection Law of 1730 mandated that all grown in the colony must be brought to locally designated public warehouses for inspection before sale. One of the sites designated for a warehouse on the upper Potomac River was at the mouth of Hunting Creek, however, the ground proved to be unsuitable, and the warehouse was built half a mile up-river, where the water was deep near the shore. They intended to trade into the interior of America. The best location was Hunting Creek tobacco warehouse, since the water could easily accommodate sailing ships. Many local tobacco planters, however, wanted a new town further up Hunting Creek, around 1746, Captain Philip Alexander II moved to what is south of present Duke Street in Alexandria. His estate, which consisted of 500 acres, was bounded by Hunting Creek, Hooffs Run, the Potomac River, and approximately the line which would become Cameron Street. The petition was introduced by Lawrence Washington, the representative for Fairfax County and, more importantly, the son-in-law of William Fairfax, since the river site was amidst his estate, Philip opposed the idea and strongly favored a site at the head of Hunting Creek. It has been said that in order to avoid a predicament the petitioners offered to name the new town Alexandria, as a result, Philip and his cousin Captain John Alexander gave land to assist in the development of Alexandria, and are thus listed as the founders. This John was the son of Robert Alexander II, on May 2,1749, the House of Burgesses approved the river location and ordered Mr. A Public Vendue was advertised for July, and the county surveyor laid out street lanes and town lots. The auction was conducted on July 13–14,1749, the name Belhaven was used in official lotteries to raise money for a Church and Market House, but it was never approved by the legislature and fell out of favor in the mid-1750s

22.
Second World War
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

23.
Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C.
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The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D. C. is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabias main and largest diplomatic mission to the United States. Its located at 601 New Hampshire Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D. C. in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, near the Watergate complex, the current Ambassador is Abdullah bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud. Protests have been there, in 2010 on Womens rights

24.
University of Southern California
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The University of Southern California is a private research university founded in 1880 with its main campus in Los Angeles, California. As Californias oldest private university, USC has historically educated a large number of the regions business leaders. In recent decades, the university has also leveraged its location in Los Angeles to establish relationships with research and cultural institutions throughout Asia, an engine for economic activity, USC contributes $8 billion annually to the economy of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and California. For the 2014–15 academic year, there were 18,740 students enrolled in undergraduate programs. USC also has 23,729 graduate and professional students in a number of different programs, including business, law, engineering, social work, and medicine. The university is one of the top fundraising institutions in the world, consistently ranking among the top 3 in external contributions, multiple academic rankings list the University of Southern California as being among the top 25 universities in the United States. With an acceptance rate of 16 percent, USC is also among the most selective academic institutions in the nation. USC maintains a tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship, with alumni having founded companies such as Lucasfilm, Myspace, Salesforce. com, Intuit, Qualcomm, Box, Tinder. As of 2014, the university has produced the fourth largest number of billionaire alumni out of all institutions in the world. USC is home to the world’s most powerful computer, which is presently housed in a super-cooled. The only other commercially available quantum computing system is operated jointly by NASA, USC was also one of the earliest nodes on ARPANET and is the birthplace of the Domain Name System. Other technologies invented at USC include DNA computing, dynamic programming, image compression, VoIP, USC sponsors a variety of intercollegiate sports and competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Members of the teams, the Trojans, have won 102 NCAA team championships, ranking them third in the nation. Trojan athletes have won 288 medals at the Olympic games, more than any university in the United States. If USC were a country, its athletes would have received the 12th-most Olympic gold medals in history. In 1969, it joined the Association of American Universities, the University of Southern California was founded following the efforts of Judge Robert M. Hellman. The three donated 308 lots of land to establish the campus and provided the seed money for the construction of the first buildings. Originally operated in affiliation with the Methodist Church, the school mandated from the start that no student would be denied admission because of race, the university is no longer affiliated with any church, having severed formal ties in 1952

25.
Indiana State University
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Indiana State University is a public university located in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States. It is an independent public university founded in 1865 that offers over 100 majors, the university has a broad range of graduate offerings in a number of fields. Indiana State is classified by the a Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a Doctoral/Research University, both the Princeton Review and US News have ranked the Scott College of Business as one of the top business schools for its class. It is a member of the College Consortium of Western Indiana, Indiana State University was established by the Indiana General Assembly on December 20,1865, as the Indiana State Normal School in Terre Haute. As the State Normal School, its mission was to educate elementary. The school awarded its first baccalaureate degrees in 1908 and the first masters degrees in 1928, in 1929, the Indiana State Normal School was renamed the Indiana State Teachers College, and in 1961, was renamed Indiana State College due to an expanding mission. In 1965, the Indiana General Assembly renamed the college as Indiana State University in recognition of continued growth, the Indiana State University main campus is located on the north side of Terre Haute’s downtown business district and covers more than 200 acres in the heart of the city. Over 60 brick and limestone buildings and laboratories comprise the main campus, in 2009, the university dedicated a more than 109, 000-square-foot Student Recreation Center, financed via private funding and student fees. Also in 2009, the College of Education was relocated to the newly renovated, the Scott College of Business has relocated to the renovated former Terre Haute Federal Building, a classic Art Deco building erected in 1933. The Indiana State University field campus is a teaching, learning. The field campus is located on 93 acres approximately 18 miles east of Terre Haute near Brazil, Indiana, Fairbanks Hall serves as both a working art studio as well as gallery space for the art department of Indiana State University. Originally built as a Terre Haute public library in 1903-06, it is an example of Beaux-Arts architecture. In 1903, Mr. Fairbanks offered to construct a new library on a site the city would provide. Terre Haute acquired a parcel of land at Seventh and Eagle Streets by May 5,1903, on August 10,1904, the cornerstone was placed. The informal opening and dedication of the building was April 29,1906. On Saturday, August 11,1906, a ceremony to open the building to the public was held, the following Monday. As part of the new Indiana State Master Plan, Fairbanks Hall will receive a comprehensive study to determine a new use of the space and it is a historically significant structure and will continue to be used by the University. Architect, W. H. Floyd and C. E, Normal Hall served as the university library until ‘Cunningham Memorial Library’ was built in 1974 and named in honor of Indiana State’s first Librarian, Mr. Arthur Cunningham

26.
Michigan State University
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Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. MSU was founded in 1855 and served as a model for land-grant universities later created under the Morrill Act of 1862, the university was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, one of the countrys first institutions of higher education to teach scientific agriculture. After the introduction of the Morrill Act, the college became coeducational, today, MSU is one of the largest universities in the United States and has approximately 540,000 living alumni worldwide. MSU pioneered the studies of packaging, hospitality business, supply chain management, Michigan State frequently ranks among the top 30 public universities in the United States and the top 100 research universities in the world. U. S. MSU is a member of the Association of American Universities, the universitys campus houses the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, the W. J. The Michigan State Spartans compete in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference, Michigan State Spartans football won the Rose Bowl Game in 1954,1956,1988 and 2014, and a total of six national championships. Spartans mens basketball won the NCAA National Championship in 1979 and 2000, Spartans ice hockey won NCAA national titles in 1966,1986 and 2007. Classes began on May 13,1857, with three buildings, five faculty members, and 63 male students, the first president, Joseph R. Williams, designed a curriculum that required more scientific study than practically any undergraduate institution of the era. It balanced science, liberal arts, and practical training, the curriculum excluded Latin and Greek studies, since most applicants did not study any classical languages in their rural high schools. However, it did three hours of daily manual labor, which kept costs down for both the students and the College. Despite Williams innovations and his defense of education for the masses and they forced him to resign in 1859 and reduced the curriculum to a two-year vocational program. In 1860, Williams became acting lieutenant governor and helped pass the Reorganization Act of 1861 and this gave the college a four-year curriculum and the power to grant masters degrees. Under the act, a newly created body, known as the State Board of Agriculture, the college changed its name to State Agricultural College, and its first class graduated in the same year. As the Civil War had begun, there was no time for a graduation ceremony. The first alumni enlisted to the Union Army, Williams died, and the following year, Abraham Lincoln signed the First Morrill Act of 1862 to support similar colleges, making the Michigan school a national model. Shortly thereafter, on March 18,1863, the designated the college its land-grant institution making Michigan State University one of the nations first land-grant college. The college first admitted women in 1870, although at that time there were no female residence halls, the few women who enrolled boarded with faculty families or made the arduous stagecoach trek from Lansing. From the early days, female students took the same scientific agriculture courses as male students

27.
Colorado
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Colorado is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,540,545 on July 1,2016, the state was named for the Colorado River, which Spanish travelers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28,1861, Colorado is nicknamed the Centennial State because it became a state in the same year as the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is noted for its landscape of mountains, forests, high plains, mesas, canyons, plateaus, rivers. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado, residents of the state are properly known as Coloradans, although the term Coloradoan has been used archaically and lives on in the title of Fort Collins newspaper, the Coloradoan. Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are the states which have boundaries defined solely by lines of latitude and longitude. The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the highest point in Colorado, Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies entirely above 1,000 meters elevation. The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County, Colorado and this point, which holds the distinction of being the highest low elevation point of any state, is higher than the high elevation points of 18 states and the District of Columbia. A little less than one half of the area of Colorado is flat, East of the Rocky Mountains are the Colorado Eastern Plains of the High Plains, the section of the Great Plains within Nebraska at elevations ranging from roughly 3,350 to 7,500 feet. The Colorado plains were mostly prairies, but they have many patches of forests, buttes. Eastern Colorado is presently covered in farmland and rangeland, along with small farming villages. Precipitation is fair, averaging from 15 to 25 inches annually, corn, wheat, hay, soybeans, and oats are all typical crops, and most of the villages and towns in this region boast both a water tower and a grain elevator. Irrigation water is available from the South Platte, the Arkansas River, and a few other streams, however, heavy use of ground water from wells for irrigation has caused underground water reserves to decline. As well as agriculture, eastern Colorado hosts considerable livestock, such as cattle ranches. Roughly 70% of Colorados population resides along the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pueblo, Colorado. This region is protected from prevailing storms that blow in from the Pacific Ocean region by the high Rockies in the middle of Colorado. The Front Range includes Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley and other townships, on the other side of the Rockies, the significant population centers in Western Colorado are the cities of Grand Junction, Durango, and Montrose

28.
Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St

29.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America

30.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south

31.
Islamic Society of North America
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The Islamic Society of North America, based in Plainfield, Indiana, USA, is a Muslim umbrella group. It has been described in the media as the largest Muslim organization in North America, ISNA traces its origins to a meeting of several Muslim student organizations in 1963, at which the Muslim Student Association of the U. S. & Canada was formed in January 1963, ISNA regards the MSAs 1963 convention as its first one, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Many of the leaders of four founding organizations took leadership roles in the newly formed ISNA. In 1983, ISNA completed a $21 million headquarters complex in suburban Indianapolis using funds raised in part from international sources, in 2008, ISNA claimed 4,000 members. On August 30,2013, Tahera Ahmad became the first woman to recite the Quran to open the ISNA convention, ISNAs goal is to be an exemplary and unifying Islamic organization in North America that contributes to the betterment of the Muslim community and society at large. Since 1982, ISNAs structure has changed, with several organizations either becoming defunct, ISNA provides various services for Muslim immigrants and Muslim communities in North America. They provide a forum for discussing aging and mortality as well as domestic violence, although only a small percentage of mosques are official members, mosque membership in ISNA is an important step for many small communities trying to grow. ISNA also offers individual membership on a basis and lifetime basis for sustaining donors. ISNA holds a national convention, typically on the Labor Day weekend in early September. In the last few years, it has held in Chicago, Illinois. The convention features Islamic lectures, discussions, debates, nasheeds, a notable comedian who has repeatedly performed at ISNA is Azhar Usman. In 2012, the ISNA Convention was held in Washington, D. C, ISNA-Canada, an independent, Canadian-incorporated organization, is the operator and owner of the Islamic Society of North America Elementary School in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The ISNA is led by the ISNA Executive Council with decisions ratified by a Board of Directors, the ISNA Executive Councils current President is Mohamed Magid, now in his second and final term, and its Secretary General is Safaa Zarzour. Muzzamil Siddiqi was president until November 2001, and he and Imam Siraj Wahhaj served on ISNAs board of directors in the past, Dr. Sayyid Syeed is the National Director for the Office of Interfaith & Community Alliances for ISNA. ISNA invited Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Reform Judaism is the largest Jewish denomination in the US. Yoffie denounced opportunists who demonise Islam, and called for an end to racial profiling, Yoffie drew frequent applause, and a standing ovation. David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, criticized Yoffie, ISNA also invited Rick Warren to address the 2009 annual ISNA convention

32.
Plainfield, Indiana
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Plainfield is a town in Guilford, Liberty, and Washington townships, Hendricks County, Indiana, United States. The population was 27,631 at the 2010 census, in 1822 a tract of land which included the area now known as Plainfield was obtained by Jeremiah Hadley of Preble County, Ohio. Ten years later he sold it to his son, Elias Hadley, levi Jessup and Elias Hadley laid out the town in 1839. Plainfield was incorporated as a town in 1839, the Friends were plain people, and thus the name Plainfield. The high school continues to honor the Quakers, using the name for the schools mascot, Plainfield has long been associated with the national road, U. S. Route 40, which goes through town as Main Street. One incident which brought Plainfield national attention occurred in 1842 when former President Martin Van Buren was spilled deliberately from his coach into the thick mud of the highway. The practical joke came as a result of Van Burens vetoing a bill from Congress to improve the highway, when Van Buren came through Plainfield on a swing to shore up his popularity for the 1844 election, a group of perpetrators set up the incident. The elm tree whose roots caused the carriage to topple became known as the Van Buren Elm. An elementary school near this site is named Van Buren Elementary School, in the 1980s Plainfield became the headquarters of the Islamic Society of North America. The Hendricks County Bridge Number 316, Plainfield Historic District, and THI, Plainfield is located at 39°41′51″N 86°23′5″W. According to the 2010 census, Plainfield has an area of 22.38 square miles. Plainfield is located in the Central Till Plains region of the United States, there are few moderately sized hills, and a mix of deciduous forests and prairie covers much of the area within the town limits. White Lick Creek runs along the edge of Plainfield. Along the eastern edge of town, Clarks Creek, a tributary of White Lick Creek, flows towards the south. U. S. Route 40, also known as the Historic National Road, from north to south, State Road 267 connects Plainfield to the neighboring towns of Avon and Mooresville, and it provides access to Interstate 70. Plainfields historical town center is situated around the intersection of U. S. Route 40 and Center Street, as of the census of 2010, there were 27,631 people,9,747 households, and 6,756 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,240.7 inhabitants per square mile, there were 10,386 housing units at an average density of 466.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 85. 2% White,7. 9% African American,0. 2% Native American,3. 3% Asian,1. 5% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 4. 0% of the population

33.
Qatar
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Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a sovereign country located in Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its surrounded by the Arabian Gulf. A strait in the Arabian Gulf separates Qatar from the island country of Bahrain, as well as sharing maritime borders with the United Arab Emirates. Following Ottoman rule, Qatar became a British protectorate in the early 20th century until gaining independence in 1971, Qatar has been ruled by the House of Thani since the early 19th century. Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani was the founder of the State of Qatar, Qatar is a hereditary monarchy and its head of state is Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Whether it should be regarded as a constitutional or a monarchy is a matter of opinion. In 2003, the constitution was approved in a referendum. In early 2017, Qatars total population was 2.6 million,313,000 Qatari citizens and 2.3 million expatriates, Qatar is a high income economy, backed by the worlds third largest natural gas reserves and oil reserves. The country has the highest per capita income in the world, Qatar is classified by the UN as a country of very high human development and is the most advanced Arab state for human development. Qatar is a significant power in the Arab world, supporting several rebel groups during the Arab Spring both financially and through its globally expanding media group, Al Jazeera Media Network. For its size, Qatar wields disproportionate influence in the world, Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first Arab country to do so. A century later, Ptolemy produced the first known map to depict the peninsula, the map also referenced a town named Cadara to the east of the peninsula. The term Catara was exclusively used until the 18th century, after which Katara emerged as the most commonly recognised spelling, eventually, the modern derivative Qatar was adopted as the countrys name. In Standard Arabic, the name is pronounced, while in the local dialect it is, Human habitation of Qatar dates back to 50,000 years ago. Settlements and tools dating back to the Stone Age have been unearthed in the peninsula, Mesopotamian artefacts originating from the Ubaid period have been discovered in abandoned coastal settlements. Al Daasa, a settlement located on the western coast of Qatar, is the most important Ubaid site in the country and is believed to have accommodated a small seasonal encampment. Kassite Babylonian material dating back to the second millennium BC found in Al Khor Islands attests to trade relations between the inhabitants of Qatar and the Kassites in modern-day Bahrain, among the findings were 3,000,000 crushed snail shells and Kassite potsherds. It has been suggested that Qatar is the earliest known site of shellfish dye production, in 224 AD, the Sasanian Empire gained control over the territories surrounding the Persian Gulf

34.
Kuwait
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Kuwait /kuːˈweɪt/, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in Western Asia. Situated in the edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, it shares borders with Iraq. As of 2016, Kuwait has a population of 4.2 million people,1.3 million are Kuwaitis and 2.9 million are expatriates, expatriates account for 70% of the population. Oil reserves were discovered in 1938, from 1946 to 1982, the country underwent large-scale modernization. In the 1980s, Kuwait experienced a period of geopolitical instability, in 1990, Kuwait was invaded by Iraq. The Iraqi occupation came to an end in 1991 after military intervention by coalition forces, at the end of the war, there were extensive efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure. Kuwait is a constitutional emirate with a political system. It has an income economy backed by the worlds sixth largest oil reserves. The Kuwaiti dinar is the highest valued currency in the world, according to the World Bank, the country has the fourth highest per capita income in the world. The Constitution was promulgated in 1962, making Kuwait the most democratic country in the region, in the Arab world, Kuwait is frequently dubbed the Hollywood of the Gulf due to the popularity of its soap operas and theatre. During the Ubaid period, Kuwait was the site of interaction between the peoples of Mesopotamia and Neolithic Eastern Arabia, mainly centered in As-Subiya in northern Kuwait. The earliest evidence of habitation in Kuwait dates back 8000 B. C. where Mesolithic tools were found in Burgan. As-Subiya in northern Kuwait is the earliest evidence of urbanization in the whole Persian Gulf basin area, mesopotamians first settled in the Kuwaiti island of Failaka in 2000 B. C. Traders from the Sumerian city of Ur inhabited Failaka and ran a mercantile business, the island had many Mesopotamian-style buildings typical of those found in Iraq dating from around 2000 B. C. The Neolithic inhabitants of Kuwait were among the worlds earliest maritime traders, one of the worlds earliest reed-boats was discovered in northern Kuwait dating back to the Ubaid period. In 3rd century BC, the ancient Greeks colonized the bay of Kuwait under Alexander the Great, according to Strabo and Arrian, Alexander the Great named Failaka Ikaros because it resembled the Aegean island of that name in size and shape. Remains of Greek colonization include a large Hellenistic fort and Greek temples, in 224 AD, Kuwait became part of the Sassanid Empire. At the time of the Sassanid Empire, Kuwait was known as Meshan, Akkaz was a Partho-Sassanian site, the Sassanid religions tower of silence was discovered in northern Akkaz

35.
Bahrain
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Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small Arab monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Bahrains population is 1,234,567, including 666,172 non-nationals and it is 780 km2 in size, making it the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation and it has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam, following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was occupied by the Portuguese in 1521, who in turn were expelled in 1602 by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty under the Persian Empire. In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, in the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. Formerly a state, Bahrain was declared a Kingdom in 2002, in 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring. Bahrain had the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf, since the late 20th century, Bahrain has invested in the banking and tourism sectors. Many large financial institutions have a presence in Manama, the countrys capital, Bahrain has a high Human Development Index and was recognised by the World Bank as a high income economy. In Arabic, Bahrayn is the form of bahr, so al-Bahrayn means the two seas, although which two seas were originally intended remains in dispute. The term appears five times in the Quran, but does not refer to the modern island—originally known to the Arabs as Awal— but rather to all of Eastern Arabia. Today, Bahrains two seas are generally taken to be the bay east and west of the island. In addition to wells, there are areas of the sea north of Bahrain where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of the water as noted by visitors since antiquity. An alternate theory with regard to Bahrains toponymy is offered by the al-Ahsa region, another supposition by al-Jawahari suggests that the more formal name Bahri would have been misunderstood and so was opted against. Until the late Middle Ages, Bahrain referred to the region of Eastern Arabia that included Southern Iraq, Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, the region stretched from Basra in Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayns Bahrayn Province, the exact date at which the term Bahrain began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown. The entire coastal strip of Eastern Arabia was known as Bahrain for a millennium, the island and kingdom were also commonly spelled Bahrein into the 1950s. Bahrain was home to the Dilmun civilization, an important Bronze Age trade centre linking Mesopotamia, Bahrain was later ruled by the Assyrians and Babylonians. From the 6th to 3rd century BC, Bahrain was part of the Persian Empire ruled by the Achaemenian dynasty, by about 250 BC, Parthia brought the Persian Gulf under its control and extended its influence as far as Oman

36.
Oman
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Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is an Arab country on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the southeast, the Madha and Musandam exclaves are surrounded by the UAE on their land borders, with the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman forming Musandams coastal boundaries. From the late 17th century, the Omani Sultanate was an empire, vying with Portugal and Britain for influence in the Persian Gulf. At its peak in the 19th century, Omani influence or control extended across the Strait of Hormuz to modern-day Iran and Pakistan, as its power declined in the 20th century, the sultanate came under the influence of the United Kingdom. Historically, Muscat was the trading port of the Persian Gulf region. Muscat was also among the most important trading ports of the Indian Ocean, the Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said has been the hereditary leader of the country since 1970. Sultan Qaboos is the current ruler in the Middle East. Oman has modest oil reserves, ranking 25th globally, nevertheless, in 2010 the UNDP ranked Oman as the most improved nation in the world in terms of development during the preceding 40 years. A significant portion of its economy is tourism and trade of fish, dates and this sets it apart from its neighbors solely oil-dependent economies. Oman is categorized as an economy and ranks as the 74th most peaceful country in the world according to the Global Peace Index. Two optically stimulated luminescence age estimates place the Arabian Nubian Complex at 106,000 years old and this supports the proposition that early human populations moved from Africa into Arabia during the Late Pleistocene. Dereaze, located in the city of Ibri, is the oldest known settlement in the area. Archaeological remains have been discovered here from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, findings have included stone implements, animal bones, shells and fire hearths, with the latter dating back to 7615 BC as the oldest signs of human settlement in the area. Other discoveries include hand-molded pottery bearing distinguishing pre-Bronze Age marks, heavy flint implements, pointed tools, sumerian tablets refer to a country called Magan or Makan, a name believed to refer to Omans ancient copper mines. Mazoon, another used for the region, is derived from the word muzn. The present-day name of the country, Oman, is believed to originate from the Arab tribes who migrated to its territory from the Uman region of Yemen. Many such tribes settled in Oman, making a living by fishing, herding or stock breeding, from the 6th century BC to the arrival of Islam in the 7th century AD, Oman was controlled and/or influenced by three Persian dynasties, the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids. A few scholars believe that in the 6th century BC, the Achaemenids exerted a strong degree of control over the Omani peninsula, Central Oman has its own indigenous so-called Late Iron Age cultural assemblage, the Samad al-Shan

37.
United Arab Emirates
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In 2013, the UAEs population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. The country is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on 2 December 1971, the constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. Each emirate is governed by a monarch, together, they jointly form the Federal Supreme Council. One of the monarchs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates, Islam is the official religion of the UAE and Arabic is the official language. The UAEs oil reserves are the seventh-largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the worlds seventeenth-largest, Sheikh Zayed, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the first President of the UAE, oversaw the development of the Emirates and steered oil revenues into healthcare, education and infrastructure. The UAEs economy is the most diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, while its most populous city of Dubai is an important global city, nevertheless, the country remains principally reliant on its export of petroleum and natural gas. The UAE is criticised for its rights record, including the specific interpretations of Sharia used in its legal system. The UAEs rising international profile has led analysts to identify it as a regional. It appears the land of the Emirates has been occupied for thousands of years, there is no proof of contact with the outside world at that stage, although in time it developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia and Iran. This contact persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, in ancient times, Al Hasa was part of Al Bahreyn and adjoined Greater Oman. Sassanid groups were present on the Batinah coast, in 637, Julfar was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sassanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tuam and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior. The earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, a monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 AD, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 AD and it forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 AD following trade routes. Certainly, by the 5th century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 AD. This led to a group of travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids. Following the death of Prophet Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. The Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory with the battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost

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Diplomatic missions of the United States
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This is a list of diplomatic missions of the United States of America. It is said that Morocco, in December 1777, became the first nation to seek relations with the United States. However the claim goes to the Netherlands, as they were the first to recognize the United States as an independent government. Benjamin Franklin established the first overseas mission of the United States in Paris in 1779. Adams then became the first U. S. ambassador to the Netherlands, much of the first fifty years of the Department of State concerned negotiating with imperial European powers over the territorial integrity of the borders of the United States as known today. The first overseas consulate of the fledgling United States was founded in 1790 at Liverpool, England, Maury held the post from 1790 to 1829. Liverpool was at the time Britains leading port for transatlantic commerce, president George Washington, on November 19,1792, nominated Benjamin Joy of Newbury Port as the first American Consul to Kolkata, India. Joy was not recognized as Consul by the British East India Company but was permitted to “reside here as a Commercial Agent subject to the Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction of this Country…”. The first overseas property owned, and the longest continuously owned, by the United States is the American Legation in Tangier, in general during the nineteenth century, the United States diplomatic activities were done on a minimal budget. The U. S. S. only achieved towards the end of the nineteenth century, the wave of overseas construction began with the creation of the State Department’s Foreign Service Buildings Commission in 1926. Addis Ababa Brussels Geneva Jakarta Manila Montréal New York City Paris Rome Vienna Washington, D. C

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Amazon.com
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Amazon. com, also called Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company that was founded on July 5,1994, by Jeff Bezos and is based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the world by total sales, the company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo—and is the worlds largest provider of cloud infrastructure services. Amazon also sells certain low-end products like USB cables under its in-house brand AmazonBasics. Amazon has separate retail websites for the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India, and Mexico. Amazon also offers international shipping to other countries for some of its products. In 2016, Dutch, Polish, and Turkish language versions of the German Amazon website were launched. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization, in 1994, Bezos left his employment as vice-president of D. E. Shaw & Co. a Wall Street firm and moved to Seattle. He began to work on a plan for what would eventually become Amazon. com. Bezos incorporated the company as Cadabra on July 5,1994, Bezos changed the name to Amazon a year later after a lawyer misheard its original name as cadaver. In September 1994, Bezos purchased the URL Relentless. com and briefly considered naming his online store Relentless, the domain is still owned by Bezos and still redirects to the retailer. The company went online as Amazon. com in 1995, Bezos placed a premium on his head start in building a brand, telling a reporter, Theres nothing about our model that cant be copied over time. But you know, McDonalds got copied, and it still built a huge, multibillion-dollar company. A lot of it comes down to the brand name, brand names are more important online than they are in the physical world. Additionally, a beginning with A was preferential due to the probability it would occur at the top of any list that was alphabetized. Since June 19,2000, Amazons logotype has featured a curved arrow leading from A to Z, representing that the company carries every product from A to Z, with the arrow shaped like a smile. After reading a report about the future of the Internet that projected annual Web commerce growth at 2, 300% and he narrowed the list to what he felt were the five most promising products, which included, compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos and books. Amazon was founded in the garage of Bezos home in Bellevue, the company began as an online bookstore, an idea spurred off with discussion with John Ingram of Ingram Book, along with Keyur Patel who still holds a stake in Amazon. Amazon was able to access books at wholesale from Ingram, in the first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries

40.
Abaya
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Traditional abayat are black and may be either a large square of fabric draped from the shoulders or head or a long caftan. The abaya covers the body except the head, feet. It can be worn with the niqāb, a veil covering all. Some women also wear black gloves, so their hands are covered as well. The Indonesian and Malaysian womens traditional dress kebaya gets its name from the abaya, the rationale for the abaya is often attributed to the Quranic quote, O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters, and the believing women, to cover themselves with a loose garment. They will thus be recognised and no harm come to them Quran 33,59 This quote is often given as the argument for wearing the abaya. The abaya is most common in countries with large Muslim populations and it is rare in countries like Indonesia, India and Pakistan. Abaya also refers to different garments in different countries, in the gulf countries, they tend to be black in color. Turkish Abaya on the hand tend to be colorful. In Saudi Arabia, women are required to cover in public, abayat are known by various names but serve the same purpose, which is to cover. Contemporary models are usually caftans, cut from light, flowing fabrics like crepe, georgette, other known abaya styles are front open and front closed abaya. Styles differ from region to region, some abayat have embroidery on black fabric while others are brightly coloured and have different forms of artwork across them, islam and clothing List of types of sartorial hijab Kaur-Jones, Priya

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George Mason University
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George Mason University, located in George Mason in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, is the largest public research university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The university was founded as a branch of the University of Virginia in 1949, today, Mason is recognized for its programs in economics, law, creative writing, computer science, and business. In recent years, George Mason faculty have won the Nobel Prize in Economics. The university enrolls 33,917 students, making it the largest university by head count in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville created an extension center to serve Northern Virginia. … the University Center opened, on October 1,1949, the extension center offered both for credit and non-credit informal classes in the evenings in the Vocational Building of the Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. By the end of 1952, enrollment increased to 1,192 students from 665 students the previous year, a resolution of the Virginia General Assembly in January 1956 changed the extension center into University College, the Northern Virginia branch of the University of Virginia. John Norville Gibson Finley served as director, seventeen freshmen students attended classes at University College in a small renovated elementary school building in Baileys Crossroads starting in September 1957. In 1958 University College became George Mason College, the City of Fairfax purchased and donated 150 acres of land just south of the city limits to the University of Virginia for the colleges new site, which is now referred to as the Fairfax Campus. In 1959, the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia selected a permanent name for the college, George Mason College of the University of Virginia. The Fairfax campus construction planning that began in early 1960 showed visible results when the development of the first 40 acres of Fairfax Campus began in 1962, in the Fall of 1964 the new campus welcomed 356 students. The measure, known as H33, passed the Assembly easily and was approved on March 1,1966 making George Mason College a degree-granting institution. On Friday, April 7,1972, a contingent from George Mason College, led by Chancellor Lorin A. Thompson, in 1978, George W. Johnson was appointed to serve as the fourth president. Under his eighteen-year tenure, the university expanded both its size and program offerings at a tremendous rate. Shortly before Johnsons inauguration in April 1979, Mason acquired the School of Law, the university also became a doctoral institution. Toward the end of Johnsons term, Mason would be deep in planning for a campus in Prince William County at Manassas. Enrollment once again more than doubled from 10,767 during the fall of 1978 to 24,368 in the spring of 1996, Dr. Alan G. Merten was appointed president in 1996. He believed that the location made it responsible for both contributing to and drawing from its surrounding communities—local, national, and global. George Mason was becoming recognized and acclaimed in all of these spheres, Dr. Ángel Cabrera officially took office on July 1,2012

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Mecca
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Mecca or Makkah is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also capital of the Makkah Region. The city is located 70 km inland from Jeddah in a valley at a height of 277 m above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although more than triple this number every year during the hajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah. Mecca is home to the Kaaba, by majority description Islams holiest site, Mecca was long ruled by Muhammads descendants, the sharifs, acting either as independent rulers or as vassals to larger polities. It was conquered by Ibn Saud in 1925, during this expansion, Mecca has lost some historical structures and archaeological sites, such as the Ajyad Fortress. Today, more than 15 million Muslims visit Mecca annually, including several million during the few days of the Hajj, as a result, Mecca has become one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Muslim world, despite the fact that non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city. The Saudi government adopted Makkah as the spelling in the 1980s. The full official name is Makkah al-Mukarramah or Makkatu l-Mukarramah, which means Mecca the Honored, the ancient or early name for the site of Mecca is Bakkah. An Arabic language word, its etymology, like that of Mecca, is obscure, the form Bakkah is used for the name Mecca in the Quran in 3,96, while the form Mecca is used in 48,24. In South Arabic, the language in use in the portion of the Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad. Other references to Mecca in the Quran call it Umm al-Qurā, another name of Mecca is Tihamah. Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the Tihamah, yaqut al-Hamawi, the 12th century Syrian geographer, wrote that Fārān was an arabized Hebrew word. One of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah, Mecca is governed by the Municipality of Mecca, a municipal council of fourteen locally elected members headed by a mayor appointed by the Saudi government. As of May 2015, the mayor of the city was Dr. Osama bin Fadhel Al-Bar, Mecca is the capital of the Makkah Region, which includes neighboring Jeddah. The provincial governor was prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud from 2000 until his death in 2007, on 16 May 2007, prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud was appointed as the new governor. The early history of Mecca is still disputed, as there are no unambiguous references to it in ancient literature prior to the rise of Islam. The Roman Empire took control of part of the Hejaz in 106 AD, ruling cities such as Hegra, even though detailed descriptions were established of Western Arabia by Rome, such as by Procopius, there are no references of a pilgrimage and trading outpost such as Mecca. The first direct mention of Mecca in external literature occurs in 741 AD in the Byzantine-Arab Chronicle, claims have been made this could be a reference to the Kaaba in Mecca

California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and th

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A forest of redwood trees in Redwood National Park

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Flag

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Mount Shasta

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Aerial view of the California Central Valley

Washington, DC
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any

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Clockwise from top left: Smithsonian Institution Building, Rock Creek Park, National Mall (including the Lincoln Memorial in the foreground), Howard Theatre and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

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Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the retrocession

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Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865 assassination of President Lincoln

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Crowds surrounding the Reflecting Pool during the 1963 March on Washington

Arabic language
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and

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The Galland Manuscript of One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century

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al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script)

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Bilingual traffic sign in Qatar.

Najdi Arabic
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Najdi Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Najd region of Saudi Arabia. There are four major dialects of Najdi Arabic, northern Najdi, spoken in Hail Region and Al-Qassim Region in the Najd. Central Najdi, spoken in the city of Riyadh and surrounding towns, southern Najdi, spoken in the city of Al-Kharj and surrounding towns, and in the Rub

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regions where Najdi is the language of the majority

Hijazi Arabic
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Hejazi Arabic or Hijazi Arabic, also known as West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. Strictly speaking, there are two groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population who consist the majority. However, the term most often applies to the variety, spoken in the major cities su

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regions where Hejazi is the language of the majority

Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and u

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The Kaaba, in Mecca, Hejaz region, today's Saudi Arabia, is the center of Islam. Muslims from all over the world gather there to pray in unity.

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The dome of the Carol I Mosque in Constanța, Romania, topped by the Islamic crescent

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An angel presenting Muhammad and his companions with a miniature city. In the Topkapi Palace Library, Istanbul.

Arab Americans
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Arab Americans are Americans of Arab ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage or identity, who identify themselves as Arab. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World. According to the 2010 U. S. Census, there are 1,697,570 Arab Americans in the United States,290,893 persons defined th

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Hocine Khalfi

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Ralph Nader

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James Abourezk

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The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan celebrates the history of Arab Americans.

Israeli Americans
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Israeli Americans are Americans who have Israeli citizenship either by descent, naturalization, or birth in Israel. Israelis began migrating to the United States shortly after the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. A second wave of modest immigration continued with a total of 36,306 Israelis during 1970 to 1979,43,669 in 1980 to 1989,41,340 i

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The New York City Metropolitan Area is home to by far the largest Israeli immigrant population in the United States.

American Jews
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American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are Americans who are Jews, either by religion, ethnicity, or nationality. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews and their US-born descendants, Minority Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and a smaller pe

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David René de Rothschild

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Betty Friedan

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Rashida Jones

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Joe Lieberman, he was the first Jewish Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate.

Assyrian Americans
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Assyrian Americans refers to people born in or residing in the United States of full or partial Assyrian origin. The 2000 U. S. census counted 82,355 Assyrians in the country, however, Assyrian-American organizations claim that their population in 2010 is around 400,000. The largest Assyrian-Chaldean diaspora is located in Metropolitan Detroit, wit

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Chaldean Catholic Church in Detroit Chaldean Christians immigration, mainly to Detroit, Michigan began in the early 20th century. The first reported Assyrian who immigrated to the United States was Zia Attala, who was a hotel owner in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [citation needed]

Americans
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Americans are citizens of the United States of America. The country is home to people of different national origins. As a result, Americans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, although citizens make up the majority of Americans, non-citizen residents, dual citizens, and expatriates may also claim an American identity. See Names for Unit

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John F. Kennedy (Irish)

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Flag of the United States

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George Washington (English)

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Frank Sinatra (Italian)

Saudi
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain cons

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Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia

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Flag

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Saudi Arabia political map

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Saudi Arabian administrative regions and roadways map.

American Community Survey
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The American Community Survey is an ongoing statistical survey by the U. S. Census Bureau. These data are used by many public-sector, private-sector, and not-for-profit stakeholders to allocate funding, track shifting demographics, plan for emergencies, sent to approximately 295,000 addresses monthly, it is the largest survey after the decennial ce

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2015)

Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain cons

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Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia

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Flag

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Saudi Arabia political map

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Saudi Arabian administrative regions and roadways map.

United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764

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Flag

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The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.

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The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776

Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims

Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in th

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The Temple Mount in Jerusalem

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Map of the Middle East (green).

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The Kaaba, located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

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Islam is the largest religion in the Middle East. Here, Muslim men are prostrating during prayer in a mosque.

World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directl

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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

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The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

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Adolf Hitler at a German National Socialist political rally in Weimar, October 1930

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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the Second Italo-Abyssinian War

Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any

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Clockwise from top left: Smithsonian Institution Building, Rock Creek Park, National Mall (including the Lincoln Memorial in the foreground), Howard Theatre and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

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Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the retrocession

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Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865 assassination of President Lincoln

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Crowds surrounding the Reflecting Pool during the 1963 March on Washington

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
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Representative Emanuel Celler of New York proposed the bill, Senator Philip Hart of Michigan co-sponsored it, and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts helped to promote it. The Hart–Celler Act abolished the system based on national origins that had been American immigration policy since the 1920s. The new law maintained the per-country limits, but

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October 3, 1965: President Lyndon Johnson visits the Statue of Liberty to sign the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

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Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

Alexandria, Virginia
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Alexandria is an independent city in the United States Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 139,966, and in 2015, located along the western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately 7 miles south of downtown Washington, D. C. Like the rest of Northern Virginia, as well as Central Maryland, one of Alexandr

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Alexandria with Washington and Arlington in the distance

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Map of Alexandria County (1878), including what is now Arlington County and the City of Alexandria. Map includes the names of property owners at that time. City boundaries roughly correspond with Old Town.

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Map of Alexandria showing the forts that were constructed to defend Washington during the Civil War

Second World War
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directl

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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

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The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

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Adolf Hitler at a German National Socialist political rally in Weimar, October 1930

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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the Second Italo-Abyssinian War

Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C.
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The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D. C. is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabias main and largest diplomatic mission to the United States. Its located at 601 New Hampshire Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D. C. in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, near the Watergate complex, the current Ambassador is Abdullah bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah Al S

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Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington, D.C.

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Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C.

University of Southern California
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The University of Southern California is a private research university founded in 1880 with its main campus in Los Angeles, California. As Californias oldest private university, USC has historically educated a large number of the regions business leaders. In recent decades, the university has also leveraged its location in Los Angeles to establish

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The Widney Alumni House, the campus's first building

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University of Southern California

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" Tommy Trojan " is a major symbol of the university, though he is not the mascot.

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Doheny Library

Indiana State University
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Indiana State University is a public university located in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States. It is an independent public university founded in 1865 that offers over 100 majors, the university has a broad range of graduate offerings in a number of fields. Indiana State is classified by the a Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Educa

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Fairbanks Hall Dome

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Indiana State University

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Rankin Hall

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Dede Plaza

Michigan State University
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Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. MSU was founded in 1855 and served as a model for land-grant universities later created under the Morrill Act of 1862, the university was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, one of the countrys first institutions of higher e

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The Alice B Cowles House is the official home of the university president and is the oldest existing building on campus.

Colorado
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Colorado is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the 50 United

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The Elk Mountains near Aspen, Colorado

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Flag

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Mountains and lakes near Breckenridge, Colorado

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A view of the arid high plains in Southeastern Colorado

Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most p

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St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S., established in 1565 by Spain.

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Flag

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Aerial view of Castillo De San Marcos (Florida).

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The five flags of Florida from the right, Spain (1565–1763), the Kingdom of Great Britain, Spain (1784–1821), the Confederacy, and the United States. France (flag not shown) also controlled part of Florida.

Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most

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World's End State Park, Sullivan County

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Flag

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Autumn in North Branch Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania

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Penn's Treaty with the Indians, by Edward Hicks

Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Sta

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Sam Rayburn Reservoir

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Flag

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Texas Hill Country

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Big Bend National Park.

Islamic Society of North America
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The Islamic Society of North America, based in Plainfield, Indiana, USA, is a Muslim umbrella group. It has been described in the media as the largest Muslim organization in North America, ISNA traces its origins to a meeting of several Muslim student organizations in 1963, at which the Muslim Student Association of the U. S. & Canada was formed in

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Interior of ISNA building

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ISNA building, Plainfield, Indiana

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View through ISNA window

Plainfield, Indiana
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Plainfield is a town in Guilford, Liberty, and Washington townships, Hendricks County, Indiana, United States. The population was 27,631 at the 2010 census, in 1822 a tract of land which included the area now known as Plainfield was obtained by Jeremiah Hadley of Preble County, Ohio. Ten years later he sold it to his son, Elias Hadley, levi Jessup

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Historical Plainfield Town Center

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The Plainfield Friends Meeting

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White Lick Creek

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The site of the Van Buren Elm

Qatar
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Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a sovereign country located in Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its surrounded by the Arabian Gulf. A strait in the Arabian Gulf separates Qatar from the island countr

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Dot carvings at Jebel Jassassiyeh, dating to c. 4000 BC.

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Flag

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A map of East Arabia in 1794.

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A partially restored section of the ruined town of Zubarah.

Kuwait
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Kuwait /kuːˈweɪt/, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in Western Asia. Situated in the edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, it shares borders with Iraq. As of 2016, Kuwait has a population of 4.2 million people,1.3 million are Kuwaitis and 2.9 million are expatriates, expatriates account for 70% of the population. Oil re

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Oil fires in Kuwait in 1991, which were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait.

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Flag

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Kuwait National Assembly Building

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Satellite image of Kuwait

Bahrain
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Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small Arab monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Bahrains population is 1,234,567, including 666,172 non-nationals and it is 780 km2 in size, making it the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation and it has been famed since antiqu

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A photograph of the First Oil Well in Bahrain, with oil first being extracted in 1931

Oman
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Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is an Arab country on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the southeast, the Madha and Musandam exclaves are surrounded by the UAE on their land borders, with the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman forming Musandams coastal boundaries. From the late 17th c

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A grave at Al Ayn, Oman, a World Heritage site.

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Flag

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The Sultan's Palace in Zanzibar, which was once Oman's capital and residence of its Sultans.

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The coast of Sur, Oman.

United Arab Emirates
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In 2013, the UAEs population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. The country is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on 2 December 1971, the constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. Each emirate is governed by a monar

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Dubai in 1950; the area in this photo shows Bur Dubai in the foreground (centered on Al-Fahidi Fort); Deira in middle-right on the other side of the creek; and Al Shindagha (left) and Al Ras (right) in the background across the creek again from Deira

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Flag

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Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the first President of UAE.

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View of Sharjah city

Diplomatic missions of the United States
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This is a list of diplomatic missions of the United States of America. It is said that Morocco, in December 1777, became the first nation to seek relations with the United States. However the claim goes to the Netherlands, as they were the first to recognize the United States as an independent government. Benjamin Franklin established the first ove

Amazon.com
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Amazon. com, also called Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company that was founded on July 5,1994, by Jeff Bezos and is based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the world by total sales, the company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, an

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amazon.com homepage

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

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Amazon.com's former headquarters in the Pacific Medical Center building in Beacon Hill, Seattle

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Customer Service Center in Huntington, West Virginia

Abaya
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Traditional abayat are black and may be either a large square of fabric draped from the shoulders or head or a long caftan. The abaya covers the body except the head, feet. It can be worn with the niqāb, a veil covering all. Some women also wear black gloves, so their hands are covered as well. The Indonesian and Malaysian womens traditional dress

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Three women take a walk on a beach in Oman wearing abayat.

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Two women dressed in abayat and niqāb. Abaya is the dress and niqāb is the face covering.

George Mason University
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George Mason University, located in George Mason in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, is the largest public research university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The university was founded as a branch of the University of Virginia in 1949, today, Mason is recognized for its programs in economics, law, creative writing, computer science, and b

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George Mason, (1725–1792) the university's namesake.

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George Mason University

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The Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study is located on the Fairfax campus.

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Johnson Center and Center for the Arts

Mecca
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Mecca or Makkah is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also capital of the Makkah Region. The city is located 70 km inland from Jeddah in a valley at a height of 277 m above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although more than triple this number every year during the hajj period held in the twelfth Mus